So I dont know if you've heard of Marco Rubio, tea party backed republican senator from Florida, currently in his first term, was supposedly on the short list for the GOP VP nomination in 2012, and is supposed to be one of the leading contenders (already) for the republican nomination in 2016.
Problem is, he might be off to a bit of a rough start. See it appears future president elect Rubio, doesnt actually understand who does what in the government.
So I'm sure you know this, but at the moment President Obama is in the process of getting his second term cabinet confirmed by the senate. It started last week with the 94-3 vote to confirm now former Senator John Kerry as Secretary of State. It continued with the confirmation hearings for Chuck Hagel, Barack Obama's pick for the new Secretary of Defense. His confirmation vote will likely be held next week. But at least one US senator wont be voting for him, Marco Rubio. Now that in and of it self isnt a problem, of course any senator should only vote for people he actually thinks would be good in the job......the problem is, from his stated reasons for opposing Hagel, Rubio actually doesnt know what the job is, so has no idea who would or wouldnt be good at it.
Quoting the Senator directly
“After carefully reviewing Senator Hagel’s record on a number of issues, I cannot support his confirmation as our nation’s next Secretary of Defense. I oppose his confirmation because of his views on U.S. policy toward Cuba, his past opposition to tough Iran sanctions, his questionable comments in the past about U.S. support for Israel, his support for direct, bilateral negotiations with North Korea and, most importantly, my belief that he will usher in a new era of austere defense budgets that will severely impede U.S. national security by hampering readiness and radically limiting the global force projection of our military."
Now lets go item by item here, just to fully show the problem:
1)"his views on U.S. policy toward Cuba". Now I understand why, Rubio the son of two Batista era Cuban immigrants, but who told their son they were Castro refugees (which of course he believed, because why not, and the fact they lied is not his fault), would have strong feeling on Cuban policy. But heres the issue; you know who sets the US policy on Cuba? That would be the President of the United States. AKA the job Rubio presumably wants in 4 years, and not the job Chuck Hagel is applying for.
Oh and you know who helps implement the President's policies on Cuba? Yea that would be the Secretary of State. Again not really the job Hagel is after.
You know what impact the Secretary of Defense has on Cuba policy? basically none. So yea reason 1 boils down to "I object because of something thats not part of your job"
2) "his past opposition to tough Iran sanctions" Oddly enough, this breaks down basically exactly the same way as 1. The President decides on sanctions the Sec of State helps implement them. Now yes, the Sec of Defense might be called on to enforce them via military force on occasion, but he has nothing to do with coming up with them, or even putting them in place.
3) "his questionable comments in the past about U.S. support for Israel" Want to guess who actually controls this one? I'll give you a clue, its the same answer as 1 and 2. Well actually this would also likely fall partly on the UN ambassador as well, but oddly enough, thats also not the job Hagel is after. And yes again to be fair Sec od Defense would possibly have some involvement in the execution of policy but nothing to do with coming up with it. And really unless their is a war against or a full withdrawal from Israel by the US, sec of defense doesnt have anything to do.
4) "his support for direct, bilateral negotiations with North Korea" Do I even have to say it this time? its the same two jobs I've mentioned for every other answer (and again maybe the UN ambassador) . Again its not even remotely under the purview of Defense.
So yea, the basic take away here is that according to Marco Rubio thinks Chuck Hagel would be an absolutely terrible Secretary of State. Execpt that he thinks the job of Secretary of State is apparently handled by Secretary of Defense. Which probably means he has no idea what the Secretary of State does either. In fact that looks pretty likely.
See on of the committees Rubio sits on in the Senate is the committee on Foreign Relations. Now oddly enough the FR committee is the sole committee that gets to question the potential nominee for Sec of State. Which means we can actually check to see if Rubio asked Kerry about any of those issues (Israel, Iran sanctions, Cuba, and North Korea) and well it turns out the answer is no.
In fact Rubio only asked Kerry two questions: one on America's role in the world (which actually THE important question for a Sec of State in fairness) and this one:
"We move over to the Middle East, where Israel quite frankly has been concerned. Whether they admit it publicly or not, that for many, for the early years administration, they were more focused on the Palestinian question as the biggest issue in the Middle East. When in fact, the biggest issue in the Middle East is that Iran wants a nuclear weapon so they can attack Israel, and potentially other nations. We’ve talked about Iran. In 2009, the people of Iran took to the streets, in defense of the principals that we say we stand for, and the President of the United States says ‘We are not going to interfere in their sovereignty’. That totally demoralized the opposition."
Now ok to be fair, the Sec of State likely would be heavily consulted before we made any military incursion into Iran, but still you know who would be primarily responsible for stopping Iran from getting a nuclear weapon?........yea that would be the Sec of Defense, the job Chuck Hagel is applying for.
Oh an by the way, in case you were wondering John Kerry confirmation got out of committee with unanimous consent, meaning they all voted for him for Sec of State.
Which mean Marco Rubio seems to be opposed to Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense because he would be a horrible Secretary of State, and voted for John Kerry for Secretary of State in part because he would be Secretary of Defense.
Oh and I almost "forgot" there was one other objection to Hagel as Secretary of Defense, and its probably the most embarrassing for Rubio, since it proves hes a bit more confused about who does what then just Sec of State and Defense.
5)"my belief that he will usher in a new era of austere defense budgets" You know who handles the Defense Department budget? That would be the 535 members of the united states congress. The House crafts the budget, and then votes on it and sends it to the senate. Now as it turns out if any of the 100 Senators in the senate dont like the defense budget, they can put a "hold" on it, basically stopping the bill from coming to the floor, meaning it cant pass until your personal objections are fixed and you release the hold. Now you know who one of those 100 senators is? Marco Rubio.
Yea see any defense budget of any kind austere or not, can not pass without the explicit permission of Marco Rubio. In fact the Sec. of Defense, like all other Secretaries has exactly nothing to do with the budget, they can and do but in recommendations but those are pretty much always ignored by congress (especially in the case of Defense). So yea, starting the 3rd year of his term, it seems no one has actually told the senator what he job allows him to do.
Which means he is now rather embarrassingly going to vote against Chuck Hagel, in part because he, United States Senator Marco Rubio, doesnt know what the job of a United States Senator is.
Like I said, if he wants to run for President in 2016, this a pretty bumpy start. On the upside, he's got 3 years to study up......
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